The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, for example, a word processor, which has a built-in printer and which fulfills the function of printing the edited results of a document, etc. on a medium such as paper.
In general, a prior-art information processing apparatus with a built-in printer has the printer arranged at an upper rear part within the body of the apparatus. The casing of the body is provided with an opening or inlet through which sheets of printer paper are supplied to the printer, and a plate-like paper guide on which the sheets of paper are caused to lean in order to lead them to the opening. Further, the casing is provided with a paper ejection guide by which the printer paper having been printed on is led out of the apparatus. Such an information processing apparatus is, for example, a document editing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 197951/1990.
When executing a print operation in the information processing apparatus of the type specified above, the operator of the apparatus inserts the printer paper manually along the paper guide and thereafter starts the printing. After printing, the operator removes the printer paper coming out of the apparatus along the paper ejection guide, as a printed result.
With the prior-art technique, the operator must manually insert and remove the printer paper and the printed paper, and the troublesome operations are forced upon him/her. This poses the problem that the operability of the apparatus is inferior with regard to the printing operation.
There is also a system (for example, a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 313897/1988) wherein, in order to solve the aforementioned problem, an automatic paper feeder is installed so as to automate the paper insertion and removal operations. Since, however, the automatic paper feeder needs to be mounted outside an information processing apparatus, the whole system becomes large in size and is problematic regarding the portability thereof. Another problem is that the attachment and detachment of the automatic paper feeder are not easy. As a further problem, sheets of printer paper are set on the paper feed tray of the automatic paper feeder, and sheets of printed paper as printed results are delivered to the paper ejection tray of the feeder and are piled up thereon, so that the contents of the printed results can be viewed by another person other than the user, and the sheets of printer paper and printed paper might scatter to cause an unsightly scene around the system. These are serious problems, especially for a small-sized information processing apparatus whose portability is regarded as important and which will possibly be used in various places.